Where No One Has Gone Before
' |image= |series= |production=40271-106 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Diane Duane Michael Reaves |director=Rob Bowman |imdbref=tt0708842 |guests=Stanley Kamel as Kosinski, Eric Menyuk as The Traveler, Herta Ware as Maman Picard, Biff Yeager as Argyle, Charles Dayton as Crew member, Victoria Dillard as Ballerina |previous_production=Haven |next_production=The Last Outpost |episode=TNG A06 |airdate=24 October 1987 |previous_release=The Last Outpost |next_release=Lonely Among Us |story_date(s)=Stardates 41263.1-41263.4 |previous_story=Haven |next_story=The Last Outpost }} =Summary= The Enterprise meets the USS Fearless to bring aboard Mr. Kosinski, a Starfleet propulsion expert who plans to run tests on the warp engines to improve their efficiency. With Kosinski is his assistant, an alien being from Tau Alpha C known as the Traveler. As Kosinski and the Traveler explain the tests to the engineering crew, Wesley Crusher quickly grasps what the tests are designed to accomplish and the Traveler expresses admiration for his problem-solving abilities. The test quickly goes awry when the Enterprise speeds up, surpassing the known capabilities of warp engines. Jean-Luc Picard orders the ship stopped, and the crew find themselves on the far side of the M33 Galaxy (more than 2.7 million light years from the Milky Way, the Enterprise's home galaxy). Although Kosinski is pleased with the results, he is reprimanded by Picard and asked to simply redo the process to return home. Crusher attempts to warn Commander Riker that during the warp test, the Traveler appeared to drift out of reality, but Riker dismisses him without listening. However, after Kosinski begins the second test, Crusher and Riker both observe the Traveler again drifting out, appearing more tired. The Enterprise again experiences a burst of speed, and when it stops, the crew cannot determine their position. Picard demands that Kosinski get the crew home. While Kosinski, the Traveler and the engineering crew work on reversing the process, the rest of the crew begin experiencing lifelike visions of their past (an effect of the strange space around them). After having a vision of his mother, Picard surmises that they have arrived at the theoretical Outer Rim of the universe, and issues a red alert to awaken the crew from their visions. Finding Picard at the spot where he saw his mother, Riker suggests that Kosinski may have had nothing to do with the warp jumps, which were more likely to be a result of the Traveler's illness; Trying to determine this theory, Picard has the alien moved to sick bay. Dr. Crusher however cannot evaluate the Traveler's alien biology, and is unable to treat him. When Picard visits him in sick bay, the Traveler explains his ability to channel pure thought into reality. He brought the crew of the Enterprise to the Outer Rim, triggering similar effects in anyone within it to ascertain if they were ready to experience thought as reality. The Traveler confides to Picard that he looks for scientific prodigies such as the young Crusher, and Picard should nurture him. When he returns to the engineering section, the Traveler asks Crusher to assist him in returning the Enterprise to known space. As they concentrate, beginning to return the ship home, the Traveler again phases out and finally disappears. The Enterprise suddenly stops, and the crew is relieved to find themselves back in Federation space. After the incident, Picard finally promotes Crusher to acting ensign on the Enterprise for his performance. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights. # If Picard is such an ardent explorer, why doesn't he launch a probe or drop a beacon when he finds his ship out in the far flung reaches of the universe? Picard is obviously reluctant to waste probes and beacons in such a remote location. # Just prior to the final test that brings the Enterprise home, Picard tells the crew to center their thoughts on the Traveller's well being. Then, just for good measure, he orders battle stations, complete with flashing lights and klaxons! I don't know about you, but this would not help me concentrate on someone's well being. The crew are battling the reality altering properties of the area. Changed Premises # Writers have a natural aversion to limits. Just as soon as someone makes a rule about a given enviroment, writers usually try to find some way to subvert it. I think it's part of those twisted genes that make us want to create our own realities in the first place. I'm sure by this time in the life of Star Trek:The Next Generation, the creators had decided on the new warp scale. They had probably also decided that at warp 10, a starship would occupy all the points in the universe simultaneously (and that infinate power would be needed to achieve such a speed). So what do the writers do? They have La Forge say that they are passing warp 10 during the first test! The instruments may have appeared to indicate speeds above warp 10. Equipment Oddities # The first time the Enterprise accelerates to warp 1.5, it disappears without the normal warp flash. This could be due to the Traveller. IMDB Character error # According to Data, the subspace message sent to Starfleet from the M-33 Galaxy would take 51 years, 10 months, 9 weeks and 16 days to reach Earth. Unless the lengths of months, weeks or days has changed considerably by the 24th century or the relation of each unit to one other is different in subspace, this very impressive sounding time frame can just as easily be expressed with 52 years, two weeks and 3 or 4 days.Anything is possible! # Data uses verbal contractions on at least two occasions, despite the fact that he is not supposed to be able to. See category page for Star Trek The Next Generation for one explanation. # The Enterprise is transported at "off the scale" velocities to the M-33 galaxy over 2 million light years away. Geordi La Forge mentions that according to his calculations on his terminal, at maximum warp, it would take the Enterprise "over 300 years" to get home. According to numerous Star Trek-canon sources, Warp Factor 9 ranges between 729 to 1000+ times the speed of light, so in actuality it would take the Enterprise over 2000 years to get home, not 300. In order for the Enterprise to make it home from 2 million light years away in 300 years, it would have to travel at over 6666 times the speed of light. This is also further debunked by Star Trek: Voyager, which stated that it would take the USS Voyager (which has a higher top warp speed of Warp 9.975 compared to Enterprise's 9.6) over 75 years to traverse over 70,000 light years at its maximum warp. Even if Voyager and Enterprise had matching top speeds, it would still take Enterprise over 2140 years to get home from 2 million light years distance, and not 300 years as Geordi stated. There are a number of problems here. First, the distance is actually stated as 2.7 million light years. Second, the 729 to 1000+ range relates to the warp scale used in the original series and the first six movies - The Next Generation and it's spin offs used a different scale, which gives a higher values for each warp factor Third, Your journey times are off. Traveling at warp 9 on the original scale, a 2 million light year trip would take approximately 2260 years, 205 days 43 minutes and 45 seconds, while a 2.7 million light year journey at that speed would take about 3051 years, 276 days, 18 hours and 59 minutes! However, the trip being discussed in this episode would have been carried out using the new TNG Scale, where warp 9.6 and warp 9.975 respectively equal 1915.2 and 5551.9 times the speed of light. This means a 2 million light year journey would take approximately 1044 years, 105 days, 16 hours and 52 minutes at warp 9.6, and 360 years, 87 days and 40 minutes at warp 9.975. (equivalent times for a 2.7 million light year journey are 1409 years, 288 days, 19 hours and 11 minutes at warp 9.6, and 486 years, 117 days, 11 hours and 42 minutes at warp 9.975). Factual errors # After the first jump, an outside view shows a highly dynamic astronomical scenery: gas clouds visibly moving across the screen and around a large red object (possibly that protostar Data mentions later), making about one full revolution per minute. Only massive black holes can rotate the matter around them at such speeds, but the red object looks nothing like a black hole, and besides, if the Enterprise was so close to a black hole, it would've been in very big trouble. Other than that, any astronomical view should appear frozen solid to a human observer, considering the vast distances and dimensions involved. This could also be due to the influence of the Traveller. Incorrectly regarded as goofs # Kosinski never wears a communicator throughout the entire episode, even though he is in Starfleet uniform. This is highly unusual, since the communicator pin is an integral part of the uniform. (IMDB) Many details indicate that Kosinski is not a Starfleet officer: his strange single square insignia, him being referred to only as "expert" or "mister" - never by any rank, Commander Riker calling him "sir" in the transporter room, his informal (to say the least) behavior with senior officers, and so on. Apparently he is a civilian, working for Starfleet, which entitles him to wearing a Starfleet uniform, but not an officer's pin. # At times, the illusions of a person's thoughts can easily be seen by others nearby (example: when Worf sees his pet Targ on the bridge, Tasha sees it as well), but at other times, it appears that the illusions can only be seen by the thinkers themselves, and others cannot see what they see (example: when Picard sees his mother in the middle of the corridor, Riker does not see her). However, since that entire place is beyond human understanding, it's no use applying our logic to it - apparently the interaction between thought and reality is much more complicated than simple materialization of thoughts. Tasha may have noticed the Targ due to her being more in tune with Worf than Riker is with Picard. # During the first jump, Data states that their velocity is "off the scale". Kosinski then says that for the next attempt he would just do what he did before. However, during each of the following two jumps, their speed never exceeds warp 1.5, according to Data's instruments. '(IMDB) As we learn later, Kosinski wasn't really doing anything - it was the Traveler moving the ship, and he was obviously doing things very differently those other two times, because they left space as we know it. The fact that the warp at those other jumps stayed at 1.5 was mentioned specifically to let us know that Traveller's abilities go far beyond such mundane things as "warp factors". ' =Notes= =Sources= Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation